taal
Senior Member
I thought this was an interesting article:
http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/how-the-905-stole-our-urbanist-mojo/
One needs to keep in mind only about 1 year ago we had Miller, who very much pushed the interests Markham's mayor highlighted in the article above.
The interesting part of the article, in my opinion, is the contrast it draws between the outer 416 and the 905.
Recall the outer 416 is supposedly the anti-transit / development / anti-tax base Ford won the election on:
1) Is the 905 really that different ?
Maybe, I think the important part here is Markham's mayor has been able to keep tax increases very low. A lot of it due to the suburban spawrl they're battling, not the new dense developments.
But because of this, I feel residents are content; They wouldn't care, on the whole, if downtown Markham was going ahead or not. I know many folks who live in Markham and they fall into this boat, they don't care as long as taxes are kept in line.
My point here is this dense development push is very much driven by the administration as opposed to the demands of citizens. So in this sense the majority of residents may not be much different then the outer 416.
But there is a big difference and the article does touch on it. The outer 416 does tend to be the poorer residents in the GTA - as the article states grandiose development plans don't mean anything to them, they're not on that level. While 905 residents tend to be more affluent, so new 'downtown' areas may reinstate with them more.
Downtown Toronto, in that sense is more similar to the 905 then the outer 416.
I do think in the long term, these new developments will further the income divide ... the 905 and downtown will get richer and the outer 416 poorer; Or at the very least it won't improve.
http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/how-the-905-stole-our-urbanist-mojo/
One needs to keep in mind only about 1 year ago we had Miller, who very much pushed the interests Markham's mayor highlighted in the article above.
The interesting part of the article, in my opinion, is the contrast it draws between the outer 416 and the 905.
Recall the outer 416 is supposedly the anti-transit / development / anti-tax base Ford won the election on:
1) Is the 905 really that different ?
Maybe, I think the important part here is Markham's mayor has been able to keep tax increases very low. A lot of it due to the suburban spawrl they're battling, not the new dense developments.
But because of this, I feel residents are content; They wouldn't care, on the whole, if downtown Markham was going ahead or not. I know many folks who live in Markham and they fall into this boat, they don't care as long as taxes are kept in line.
My point here is this dense development push is very much driven by the administration as opposed to the demands of citizens. So in this sense the majority of residents may not be much different then the outer 416.
But there is a big difference and the article does touch on it. The outer 416 does tend to be the poorer residents in the GTA - as the article states grandiose development plans don't mean anything to them, they're not on that level. While 905 residents tend to be more affluent, so new 'downtown' areas may reinstate with them more.
Downtown Toronto, in that sense is more similar to the 905 then the outer 416.
I do think in the long term, these new developments will further the income divide ... the 905 and downtown will get richer and the outer 416 poorer; Or at the very least it won't improve.